Of course, we're talking about manufacturing costs, not the price of getting the talent, recording them, mixing, promoting, etc etc etc. But still... So, you can see how those classical CDs are so cheap: no cost for rights to the music, get the Podunk Symphony Orchestra and Highwire Act to perform some Mozart or Bach, pay some sound guy a few grand to take a break from making tire ads to master it for you, get some pressed, and start filling the bins.
Not really. The extra cost does not go to the talent. A majority of bands with a major label contract end up owing the record company money. Courtney Love gave a wonderful speech explaining music industry economics from the artists point of view. They may actually getting screwed more than the consumer.
Not all of the $5 classical or jazz CDs are by 3rd rate orchestras or lack top quality production and engineering. I suspect the main reason for the low cost of these releases is the next to $0 marketing costs.
Celophane Square in Seattle (owned by Django's in Portland) typically sells new CDs for $1-$2 above cost. New CDs there end up being between $11 and $15 most of the time. They also have a decent used selection as well.
Or do you listen to too many talking heads on the Teevee telling you that liberals are bad, dumb, and out to take your money?
Please get it right, us liberals want to take your money and give it to the crackhead welfare mother in the ghetto, put your children in foster care, make you take public transit, take away your house and make you live in public housing, ban eating meat, teach peganism in the schools, ban christianity, and turn all women into lesbians.
The average luser wants to click on "control panel" then "add/remove programs" then select application groups they want to add to their system say "print server" or "web server"
"make foo" may be friendly to you but it looks complicated to most people.
Well it has been pretty easy to set up printing on client boxes running Mandrake and I haven't had any problems getting Mandrake to print to a directly attached printer. I didn't try sharing these out though.
In the last couple of years I've only set up a UNIX print server to be a front-end to network printers or to pass-through via SAMBA to Windows print services.
On the other hand the SMB and LPR print services in Windows 2000 work really well and are trivial to configure. I don't think it's any contest, if I'm setting up a print server for a network of any size or that I expect someone else to maintain it's going to be running windows 2000 server unless costs or politics dictate otherwise.
News flash, April 1, 2004. The Attorney General has determined the ACLU, EFF, People for the American Way, Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, and PETA are terrorist funding or supporting organizations. US residents who are suspected of providing support to these groups or their members will be detained until their status can be determined.
Yep, that's all it takes, a decaration of the Attorney General or President and your favorite club or organization can be suspected of funding terrorism too!
Me thinks they are most certainly on the "list" now. We are going to try to get rid of the Wahhabis via diplomatic pressure. If that doesn't work well regime change isn't just for Iraq anymore.
First of all if you mail YOUR representative it carries far more weight than most other letters since it comes from someone in his or her own district.
Secondly an honest constituent letter stands out in another way, it is not an exact duplicate of 10,000 other ones.
Believe it or not your elected represenatives do actually have to listen to the voters back in their districts. What the voters giveth the voters can take away.
As far as special interest groups go I think slashdot can be pretty effective. Last time I checked there were over 600,000 accounts on slashdot. Lets assume 25% are inactive or duplicate accounts. Lets assume another 25% belong to people who are not US citizens or cannot vote (too young, resident alien). This leaves 300,000 users. If we could get 1 in 10 to write letters that is 30,000 letters. I think every represenative and senator in Congress receiving a couple hundred letters on a single issue that hasn't generated much public comment would be noticed. It's not like the AARP or NRA cares much about most geek issues.
If 1 out of 10 US citizens who bitch on slashdot would actually write their elected representatives instead of hitting the "submit" button things might begin to change. Otherwise our legislators will only hear from the lobbyists on most issues.
The scary thing is, Bill O'Reilly is considered too liberal by some FOX viewers.
While he is one of the less way off to the right FOX personallities I don't think anyone in the center or on the left will be accusing him of being a liberal any time soon.
... the spelling mistakes that happen in 4 of 5 posts...
You know I would make far fewer spelling mistakes if Slashdot would add a spelling checker. Decent open source spellcheckers have been availible for at least 20 years, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a web interface.
I suppose I could develop the habit of typing my posts in a sane editor first but for 99% of the posts I do this is way too much trouble.
Please don't confuse marrage as recognised by the state with commitment or lack therof on the part of a couple.
I know people who are married in every sense of the word (including holding a wedding) who happen to lack a marrage license. In one case the couple didn't want the tax hit, credit entanglement, or to deal with community property issues; in another the couple happens to be two men and thus cannot get a legal marrage.
On the other hand I know people who seem to marry everyone they date for more than a month or two. Typically they get a divorce within a year or so. Divorce is VERY easy in most states these days if there are no substantial assets or children involved.
I will admit Congress seems to be in the process of testing if the old theory about "no government through no taxes" is true.
Frankly there is a solution to the current nonsense: vote early, vote often.
Really I'm not kidding, vote in EVERY election including the "special" elections that don't occur on the general election day in November and whenever the general primary election is. Contribute to political campaigns of people and issues you support say $20-$50 each. I average about $200/yr in contributions. Volunteer on a political campaign or two. Pretty soon everybody who is trying to run for office or pass a ballot measure in your area will be contacting you for support.
... why not use the same standards as used in the US?
Huh? Which one?
AT&T: TDMA and GSM. Verizon: CDMA Sprint: CDMA T-Mobile(Voicestream): GSM Cingular: GSM Qwest: CDMA Nextel: None of the above.
And that's just whats availible in my area, last time I checked there still wasn't any sort of North American cell phone standard. If you want to make sure US companies get the contracts for setting up the network, Motorola, Lucent, Nortel, and many others will all happily sell equipment compatible with whatever standard is chosen.
The funny thing is the Kurds are some of our biggest supporters in Iraq. The Kurdish milita is officially part of the coalition forces and is fighting alongside US troops.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, we're talking about manufacturing costs, not the price of getting the talent, recording them, mixing, promoting, etc etc etc. But still...
So, you can see how those classical CDs are so cheap: no cost for rights to the music, get the Podunk Symphony Orchestra and Highwire Act to perform some Mozart or Bach, pay some sound guy a few grand to take a break from making tire ads to master it for you, get some pressed, and start filling the bins.
Not really. The extra cost does not go to the talent. A majority of bands with a major label contract end up owing the record company money. Courtney Love gave a wonderful speech explaining music industry economics from the artists point of view. They may actually getting screwed more than the consumer.
Not all of the $5 classical or jazz CDs are by 3rd rate orchestras or lack top quality production and engineering. I suspect the main reason for the low cost of these releases is the next to $0 marketing costs.
Celophane Square in Seattle (owned by Django's in Portland) typically sells new CDs for $1-$2 above cost. New CDs there end up being between $11 and $15 most of the time. They also have a decent used selection as well.
Or do you listen to too many talking heads on the Teevee telling you that liberals are bad, dumb, and out to take your money?
Please get it right, us liberals want to take your money and give it to the crackhead welfare mother in the ghetto, put your children in foster care, make you take public transit, take away your house and make you live in public housing, ban eating meat, teach peganism in the schools, ban christianity, and turn all women into lesbians.
Did I forget anything comrades?
And your point?
In the early to mid-90's it was so-called "militia" members and Christian cults. You do remember Waco, Ruby Ridge, and OKC?
Persons of Arab decent happen to be the bad guys of the moment. Given enough time I'm sure we'll find another group to pick on.
Personally I like "BOFH" as a title. PFY for the junior level people.
"What was your username again?"
The average luser wants to click on "control panel" then "add/remove programs" then select application groups they want to add to their system say "print server" or "web server"
"make foo" may be friendly to you but it looks complicated to most people.
Well it has been pretty easy to set up printing on client boxes running Mandrake and I haven't had any problems getting Mandrake to print to a directly attached printer. I didn't try sharing these out though.
In the last couple of years I've only set up a UNIX print server to be a front-end to network printers or to pass-through via SAMBA to Windows print services.
On the other hand the SMB and LPR print services in Windows 2000 work really well and are trivial to configure. I don't think it's any contest, if I'm setting up a print server for a network of any size or that I expect someone else to maintain it's going to be running windows 2000 server unless costs or politics dictate otherwise.
News flash, April 1, 2004. The Attorney General has determined the ACLU, EFF, People for the American Way, Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, and PETA are terrorist funding or supporting organizations. US residents who are suspected of providing support to these groups or their members will be detained until their status can be determined.
Yep, that's all it takes, a decaration of the Attorney General or President and your favorite club or organization can be suspected of funding terrorism too!
You can burn the styrofoam plates for extra points. Me I like the smell of burning old tires.
Me thinks they are most certainly on the "list" now. We are going to try to get rid of the Wahhabis via diplomatic pressure. If that doesn't work well regime change isn't just for Iraq anymore.
War is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
We're tapping phone lines
I know that that ain't allowed
--Talking Heads
"Life During Wartime"
First of all if you mail YOUR representative it carries far more weight than most other letters since it comes from someone in his or her own district.
Secondly an honest constituent letter stands out in another way, it is not an exact duplicate of 10,000 other ones.
Believe it or not your elected represenatives do actually have to listen to the voters back in their districts. What the voters giveth the voters can take away.
As far as special interest groups go I think slashdot can be pretty effective. Last time I checked there were over 600,000 accounts on slashdot. Lets assume 25% are inactive or duplicate accounts. Lets assume another 25% belong to people who are not US citizens or cannot vote (too young, resident alien). This leaves 300,000 users. If we could get 1 in 10 to write letters that is 30,000 letters. I think every represenative and senator in Congress receiving a couple hundred letters on a single issue that hasn't generated much public comment would be noticed. It's not like the AARP or NRA cares much about most geek issues.
If 1 out of 10 US citizens who bitch on slashdot would actually write their elected representatives instead of hitting the "submit" button things might begin to change. Otherwise our legislators will only hear from the lobbyists on most issues.
"Phased-plasma rifle in the forty watt range."
There is no other "Google" brand search engine.
Actually Google does have to worry about trademark dillution. They don't want to be the next "asprin" or "escalator".
And if there is a guy working on a transmission in the dining area you are about to have the best BBQ of your life.
For some reason auto repair and great BBQ seem to go together.
Oops, sorry about all the bold text. I messed up the closing tag.
The scary thing is, Bill O'Reilly is considered too liberal by some FOX viewers.
While he is one of the less way off to the right FOX personallities I don't think anyone in the center or on the left will be accusing him of being a liberal any time soon.
... the spelling mistakes that happen in 4 of 5 posts ...
You know I would make far fewer spelling mistakes if Slashdot would add a spelling checker. Decent open source spellcheckers have been availible for at least 20 years, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a web interface.
I suppose I could develop the habit of typing my posts in a sane editor first but for 99% of the posts I do this is way too much trouble.
Please don't confuse marrage as recognised by the state with commitment or lack therof on the part of a couple.
I know people who are married in every sense of the word (including holding a wedding) who happen to lack a marrage license. In one case the couple didn't want the tax hit, credit entanglement, or to deal with community property issues; in another the couple happens to be two men and thus cannot get a legal marrage.
On the other hand I know people who seem to marry everyone they date for more than a month or two. Typically they get a divorce within a year or so. Divorce is VERY easy in most states these days if there are no substantial assets or children involved.
Cat Box?
I will admit Congress seems to be in the process of testing if the old theory about "no government through no taxes" is true.
Frankly there is a solution to the current nonsense: vote early, vote often.
Really I'm not kidding, vote in EVERY election including the "special" elections that don't occur on the general election day in November and whenever the general primary election is. Contribute to political campaigns of people and issues you support say $20-$50 each. I average about $200/yr in contributions. Volunteer on a political campaign or two. Pretty soon everybody who is trying to run for office or pass a ballot measure in your area will be contacting you for support.
Huh? Which one?
AT&T: TDMA and GSM.
Verizon: CDMA
Sprint: CDMA
T-Mobile(Voicestream): GSM
Cingular: GSM
Qwest: CDMA
Nextel: None of the above.
And that's just whats availible in my area, last time I checked there still wasn't any sort of North American cell phone standard. If you want to make sure US companies get the contracts for setting up the network, Motorola, Lucent, Nortel, and many others will all happily sell equipment compatible with whatever standard is chosen.
(it's no war really, since Qualcomm's CDMA hasn't got a prayer outside the US)
Some Asian carriers especially South Korea seem to have gone for CDMA in a big way.
From what I understand the emerging 3G and 4G standards look a lot like a souped-up version of CDMA.
The funny thing is the Kurds are some of our biggest supporters in Iraq. The Kurdish milita is officially part of the coalition forces and is fighting alongside US troops.